Meet 50’s Cheesecake Singer: Kathy Barr

13May

Note: I am privileged to share an article written by David Gasten of This Is Vintage Now who has been so gracious to let us post his article about Kathy Barr, a 50’s singer who is still remembered after more than fifty years.

Meet 1950’s Cheesecake Singer
KATHY BARR

by David Gasten

Here’s an intro toone of my favorite lady performers from the 1950’s, the sultry Kathy Barr. Kathy released three LP’s and one single over the course of her recording career, and Follow Me (1957) is her debut. Be forewarned, the Follow Me LP is a little over-the-top, but it’s a lot of fun, especially if you like curvy, feisty 50’s gals.

Kathy Barr was born in New York to Turkish parents, and was originally in light opera until some cats in the industry suggested that she try going in a pop direction, which resulted in this her debut LP. This album has been reissued on CD as a Japanese import, and the fine folks in Japan have done a good job of keeping it in print. She followed it up with an LP called Do It Again (Ava/MGM, 1964), which finally got a mini-LP slip sleeve reissue by the Spanish label LP Time Records in 2010.

There’s really not a better introduction to Kathy Barr’s Follow Me than this interview on The Armed Forces Network’s radio show “The Magic of Music”. This half-hour vintage radio program dated May 2, 1958 features the announcer interviewing Kathy in between selections from the LP (about half the album is represented here).

There are some GREAT lines in this must-hear radio show. The gentleman announcer and Kathy have a really good rapport but the announcer gives in to the temptation to ogle her a bit; it’s quite cute and Kathy obviously loves it. Here’s a couple of good ones:

Announcer: (referring to what Kathy is wearing on the album cover) That’s a beautiful gown.Kathy: (suggestively) That’s a nightgown…
(The two laugh)

Kathy: I’m a New York girl. I was born and went to school and grew up in New York City. Of course, now Los Angeles is my home.Announcer: Well, fine; we’ll get to addresses later…

I’m going to start this review with a fair warning that this is a true “Love It or Hate It” album if there ever was one. If you like your jazz and easy listening technically perfect and serious, you will probably think this album is terrible. On the other hand, if you like over-the-topness and voluptuous fifties gals, this record is a LOT of fun! But even then, it’s over-the-top enough that it may take some getting used to.

According to the liner notes on the back of the album, Kathy Barr was “born Marilyn Sultana Aboulafia in New York”, was of Turkish ancestry, and was discovered by Mario Lanza.

The orchestration on the album is by Jerry Fielding. The liner notes use the words “vibrant,” “vivacious,” “vital,” “volcanic,” “powerhouse,” “molten lava,” and “flaming redhead” to describe Kathy, so you know what you’re getting into already before putting this record on.

On the Over-The-Top-O-Meter, I would say Kathy Barr is about halfway between Marilyn Monroe and Yma Sumac. Kathy makes dramatic swoops to hit notes (and hits them) while the orchestration follows her from hip-bumping swagger to violent makeout passion. Kathy sits on your lap, teases, flirts, runs her fingers through your hair, and never lets you forget that she’s ALL WOMAN the entire time she sings, to the point that when she ends the album with the title track “Follow Me”, it’s almost torturous knowing that she’s leaving and you can’t go with her. “Don’t go…” you plead under your breath as she slinks out the door, the feather boa follows her, and the door slams behind her.

As hot as that sounds, again, be forewarned–it may just be annoying to you instead of hot. It took me a couple of listens before it really hit me under the belt, and even still some of the notes Kathy hits grate on me a bit occasionally. For instance, the “Make my bed, make my bed…” phrases at the end of “Bye Bye Blackbird” still annoy me. But all is forgiven–you don’t hear too many singers that straight up WOO you on vinyl, and it’s a lot of fun to hear her slinky showgirl take on “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (later revived by Tiny Tim) and her version of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” that totally one-ups Marilyn Monroe’s version.

Kathy did a non-LP single, “Welcome Mat” b/w “A Slip of the Hip” (1957), and some radio show transcriptions that have never been released on CD, but show up on eBay from time to time. She also appeared in a theatrical production of The Desert Song that had a soundtrack album released for it in 1958 that features her singing like an operatic songbird–very opposite of this record to say the least. And just recently, the European reissue company LP Time Records did a mini-LP CD reissue of Do It Again, the 1964 follow-up to Follow Me which was originally released on the MGM-distributed Ava imprint and also features Jerry Fielding conducting. So there’s more to collect from this incredible babe of a singer. And the mastering on Follow Me is crisp, clear, and warm, so of the typical high quality that is to be expected from our friends in Japan.

This is a great find for Bachelor Pad Music collectors and any man who loves having a 1950’s porcelain redhead with big, soft, jiggly curves sitting in his lap and singing to him–it’s not as good as the real thing but it’s not a bad substitute either.

So where is Kathy Barr now? Nostalgia and Now editor Andrew Godfrey and the author have both been investigating this for a while, and have come up completely empty-handed until today when we received this message from her daughter, Sylvia Glickman. We want to thank Sylvia for passing on this information to share with our readers.

Kathy Barr was my Mother. She passed away in Hollywood FL on June 21, 2008. She was married to Irwin Glickman, and leaves one daughter behind, Sylvia Glickman, and two grandsons.

Steve, it’s Sylvia, Kathy’s daughter. I remember you! You lived a few houses away. What are you up to now? I’m in South Fl and raising a family. You knew my Grandmother too. Are you on facebook? I’m Sylvia Thunder on Facebook if you want to friend me.

Sylvia, thank you so much for writing. Andrew and I have been talking back and forth wondering what became of her for a number of months, and we were hoping that this article would help us find out. Her stunningly sexy personality still lives on in her music, and with the Vintage Movement starting to hit, it’s very possible that a posthumous interest in her music may be brewing soon. I will continue to be talking about her and her music, that is for sure; she’s got a permanent fan in me.

Sylvia, David was the first one to tell me about Kathy and her singing career. He is the one that put this page together and he let me share it with the readers of this website, so he is responsible for you being able to find the website and inform us of Kathy’s death.

David, Thank you for letting me use your article on this website. You have done more to cast the spotlight on female singers of the 50’s than anyone I know of. You are the reason that Kathy Barr is still being remembered around 50 years later.

Blog Stats

Ryan Seacrest, Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban The Fox Network is ending the 15 season run of American Idol, and they seem to be in a rush to get the show off the air, since the last show will be April 7. The season finale was on May 13 for Season […]

Nancy Wilson Nancy Wilson was born on February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, Ohio. She is now 78, and knew she would be a singer at the age of four. Wilson recorded Like in Love in 1959, which was her first album. She recorded her last album Turned to Blue in 2006. That album won […]

1954 Admiral Television I was 10 years old in 1954, when we bought our first television. We didn’t even buy the television to watch television. If I remember correctly my sister had a lazy eye, and prescribed a television (talk about an expensive prescription) so she would use her lazy eye more. We fixed a […]

I want to thank the readers of Nostalgia Now for reaching the 1,000,000 hits mark. The blog started in April of 2009 and was not active, when internet was out for long periods of time plus was out for several months, when I had cancer surgery and chemotherapy in late 2012 and early 2013. Thank […]

Eric Glisson released after 17 years in prison for crime he didn’t commit. We all have heard prisoners say they didn’t do the crime, that they are imprisoned for, but in the case of Eric Glisson he was telling the truth. It took 17 years before his innocence was proved, but he is a free […]

Jim Ed Brown 1934-2015 Jim Ed Brown has died from lung cancer at the age of 81 in Franklin, Tennessee on June 11, 2015. He was born James Edward Brown in Sparkman, Arkansas on April 1, 1934. The Browns and Elvis Presley Brown and his sisters Maxine and Bonnie formed the group The Browns and […]

I was watching Frankie Valli being interviewed on The Big Interview by Dan Rather, and was saddened to know, that he had lost two children in a short time period. He lost his daughter Celia, when she fell off a fire escape, then six months later his daughter Francine died from a drug overdose. Their […]

American Idol Season 14 Judges – Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr. If there was ever any doubt, about which singing competition show is more popular it has been removed. The Voice Season 8 has attracted less than 10 million viewers only 4 times this season, while American Idol attracted less […]

Ozzie Nelson, David Nelson, Harriet Hilliard and Ricky Nelson The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was first broadcast on radio in 1944 and could be heard on radio, until 1954 when the radio show ended on June 18. 1954. Only 83 of the shows can be bought today for listening to, out of the hundreds […]

Hillary Clinton with the late Vince Foster 22 years have passed since Vince Foster allegedly ended his life, by shooting himself in the head on July 20, 1993. Foster was said to have been depressed, at the time of his suicide, but don’t know whether to take those reports at face value. There have been […]